Advancing Word Podcast

We do not know who wrote Psalm 100.  The anonymous author pushed through doubt, disillusionment, desperation, disappointment and arrived at a place where, in a magnificent, melodic and moving anthem of praise and thanksgiving, he affirmed that God is good!  In stanza five, he tells us why.    God is good because of His exalted essence, matchless mercy and amazing availability.  

Wouldn’t it be great if when we experience a reversal, a setback or find ourselves in a difficult place, to have the ability to grab a remote and fast forward through the pain, the sorrow, the tears, the disappointment or difficulty?  So often we find ourselves in life at worst "stopped" and at best "paused" as we experience and endure the inevitable reversals - the trials and tribulations that will surely come.  This sermon based on Romans Chapter 8, verse 18, is a spiritual remote that will help you fast forward through any crippling and cumbersome commercials that advertise on your life channel.   

In the spiritual realm, storm chasers are rare. We don’t go looking for a storm!  Rather, most of us are like the author of Psalm Fifty-Five who, while looking for an exit ramp from the storms of life wrote, “Oh that I had wings like a dove!  For then would I fly away and be at rest.” The compelling storm narrative recorded in the Gospel of Mark, Chapter Four, communicates Jesus’s dominion over not just the demonic, disease and dysfunction in the human body, but over the disastrous forces of nature.  In other words, when Jesus is on board with us, every storm we face in life has an expiration date.  This sermon is a powerful reminder that there is a “story in the storm.”  

In Joshua Chapter Three, the Israelites receive instructions from God about crossing of the Jordan River.  Before they encountered the towering fortress that was the city of Jericho, they faced the turbulent flooding of the Jordan River!  The crossing of the river at this time of the year and their location was risky and fraught with danger and disaster.  But God uses this situation not only to validate Joshua’s leadership but also to fortify the people’s faith.  This experience would become a moving and monumental reminder to them and to the generations of believers that followed them, that God has an upstream provision for a downstream problem.  

In Second Kings, Chapter 4, a single mother whose husband had died faced an insurmountable debt.  Failure to pay would result in her two sons being sold into servitude.  The prophet Elisha challenges her to do an inventory of her household possessions.  She found nothing to resolve her crisis but “a little pot of oil.”   God miraculously turns her little into a lot!   In this sermon, preached during the 2024 Annual Revival at the Salem Missionary Baptist Church in Humboldt, TN, Dr. T. D. Stubblefield exposes and explores the transcendent truths and practical principles of this epic text.  

October is Clergy Appreciation Month.  Once again, we share this classic sermon by Dr. T. D. Stubblefield on the biblical office of Pastor -Teacher based on Jeremiah 3:15. “The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching” (1 Timonthy 5:17).  Send the link to this inspiring message this month to your pastor, or some other minister you know who serve God’s people faithfully along with a note of appreciation for their labor of love.

According to the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 4, verses 16-20, Jesus reads from the prophet Isaiah to mark the official commencement of His public ministry.  In the synagogue, Jesus uses the prophet’s words to communicate the character of His ministry to this broken world.  Dr. T. D. Stubblefield leverages this passage as a lens to look through and view the providential joining together of Pastor-Elect, Reverend Eddie Burton and the St. Paul United Church of Christ, Carlinville, IL for ministry during their Welcoming Celebration.  In this sermon, he shares how Jesus’s words in the text provides a blueprint, a template, a roadmap indeed a “model for ministry.” 

During the Retirement Celebration of Dr. & Mrs. Joseph L. Owens of the Shiloh Baptist Church Lexington, Kentucky, after twenty-five years of faithful service, Dr. T. D. Stubblefield encourages his friends and the church. He draws timeless truths from the historical and experiential setting of Isaiah Chapter Fifty-Two, verses 12 – 13.  This sermon is a compelling reminder that “God can be trusted in a new season” because of God’s promises, presence and provision.

In the soaring crescendo of Galatians Chapter Two, verse 20, Paul declares the essential fact of the Christian Gospel, “The Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”.  The Apostle’s life was powerful, prolific and productive because it was secured, anchored and stabilized by two irrefutable truths.  Dr. T. D. Stubblefield in the concluding sermon of the series, “The Power of a Changed Life” reminds us of what those truths are.  A love that will not let us go and a life that will not let us die!   

A “changed life” is the standard and bar to which every child of God must by grace assent and ascend to.  It requires commitment, courage and consistency.  These characteristics are in short supply in the contemporary church.  In Part 2 of this series, based on Galatians 2:20, the “changed life” is viewed through the lens of surrender.  The Christian life is not about dying but about letting Jesus live in and through us!